The system will allow Mary Washington Healthcare to improve the quality of care and reduce costs for over 3,000 employees who participate in the organization’s health plan. By Julia Ernst, MS, contributing writer

A new Harris Poll suggests cost fears keep many people from visiting the doctor even if they are insured. This telling data is yet another illustration of the need for price transparency in healthcare.

As the prevalence of high-deductible health plans continue to rise, patient convenience will become more and more important. Small, independent health providers need to invest in the technologies necessary to cater to the most basic customer demands.

Healthcare gamification is generating a lot of hype, but little adoption. Why? It turns out most of today’s healthcare gamification apps aren’t games at all. This article provides some tips for improving gamification in healthcare.

GUEST CONTRIBUTORS

Although more than half of hospitals have invested in at least basic electronic health record (EHR) technology, we, in the US, are in the infancy of leveraging this data to improve care quality and reduce costs. Accessing this EHR information for analysis and delivering meaningful reports to providers and administrators is still not a reality for many organizations.

Rarely a day passes without someone asking me where I think healthcare will be five years from now. I’m not a fortuneteller, but I do know a working crystal ball when I see one. And none work better than McKesson’s Better Health Tour events, where the thoughts shared by attendees offer important clues to health care’s future and how the industry will get there from here. By Andy Burtis, SVP of Corporate Marketing and Communications, McKesson Corporation

It is strange to discuss disrupting EHRs since their widespread adoption began only five years ago with the HITECH Act of 2009. In the last five years, there have been hospital and EHR adoption rate increases of almost 50 percent and 26 percent, according to the 2014 Report to Congress on Health IT Adoption.

Last fall, a spate of major merger announcements between hospital systems in the United States was the latest charge in a broader trend of marriages between hospitals and healthcare systems across the country

FEATURE ARTICLES

Serving a 15-county area in central and northern New York, Crouse Hospital is a private, not-for-profit hospital licensed for 506 acute-care beds and 57 bassinets. The hospital treats more than 23,000 patients on an inpatient basis, 66,000 emergency- services patients, and 250,000 patients on an outpatient basis annually.

2014 was another year of learning for ACOs participating in the Medicare Shared Savings Program (MSSP). So far, the results have been uneven, as three out of four ACOs launched in 2012 and 2013 did not save enough to earn bonuses.

As more details continue to emerge from the Anthem breach, the incident has put all healthcare organizations on notice. The estimated cost of the breach could be in excess of $100 million with as many as 80 million people impacted.[1] A breach of this magnitude is an important learning opportunity to think about healthcare security best practices and in particular, how to control access to sensitive data in organizations. Here are several key takeaways from the breach for healthcare organizations.

In this recent Becker’s Hospital Review article, I found it notable that so many of the top 10 challenges and opportunities for hospitals in 2015 were related to population health management. In addition to population health, which was called out on its own, five other related trends included the shift to value-based reimbursement, M&A, system integration, the use of data, and the need to lower costs due to reimbursement rate differences.

FEATURED SUPPLIERS

Solutionreach is a cloud-based platform built upon patient engagement technology, designed to help healthcare professionals eliminate the communication gaps that occur between their practice and their patients. The tools and services included with the platform focus on maintaining engaged relationships with each patient, all throughout the continuum of care.

Brother International Corporation, a leading manufacturer of high quality printing devices for home and office, acquired the mobility products division of the Pentax Imaging Company on August 29, 2008. This new organization is called Brother Mobile Solutions, Inc., a wholly-owned subsidiary of Brother International.

ABOUT HEALTH IT OUTCOMES

Health IT Outcomes is the premier information resource for today’s most pressing Health IT topics. Our mission is to provide healthcare providers with expert guidance on technology system selection, integration, project management, and change management. In addition to its online presence, Health IT Outcomes produces a bi-monthly print publication focused on peer-based content centered on best practices and implementation trends.

Health IT Outcomes covers all technology solutions that impact the productivity, efficiency, patient care, and cash flow of a healthcare facility — from the latest electronic health record software (EHR), healthcare information exchange (HIE), healthcare information management Software (HIM), healthcare document management,healthcare business intelligence software, healthcare revenue cycle management software, point of care (POC) EMR (electronic medical record) and HIM (health information management) software to point-of-care solutions and medical imaging systems. The site features a comprehensive buyer's guide, daily health IT news updates on the latest technologies, contributed articles from leading healthcare industry analysts and vendors, and original success stories that highlight how leading healthcare facilities are implementing technology solutions with maximum return.